David Bowie Tribute Plaque Destroyed in Berlin

David Bowie famously sang that we all could be heroes, even if it was just for one day. Unspoken in that classic 1977 song is the idea that we can be complete jerks too.

Take, for instance, the hoodlums who recently destroyed a plaque placed in the city of Berlin honoring Bowie. Unveiled just last month, the porcelain sign marked the home the late singer shared with Iggy Pop in the '70s – a particularly fertile period that produced three records now known as the Berlin Trilogy.

Police are now investigating the crime, according to the German newspaper BZ (via Exclaim). No suspects have been identified yet. Thankfully, the original manufacturing company is said to have made multiple copies for just such an occasion.

The plaque, which was affixed at Hauptstrasse 155 in Berlin's Schoneberg district, noted that “in this house lived from 1976 to 1978 David Bowie (8.1.1947 – 10.1.2016). In this time arose the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger. They go by the Berlin Trilogy in the history of music.” Bowie's song "Heroes" is also quoted.

Bowie, who died in January at age 69, was celebrated by Berlin mayor Michael Muller at the August dedication ceremony. He said Bowie played a key role in encouraging Berlin's “sense of being a city of culture, creativity and openness. … David Bowie belongs to Berlin; David Bowie belongs to us.”

“Heroes,” one of his most popular songs, was said to have been inspired by a young couple Bowie saw kissing near the Berlin Wall while he was working at a recording studio in the city's Kreuzberg district.